WACREN, ICTP and the Solid Waste, Water, and Environmental Chemistry (SwWECh) Research Group of the Institute of Ecology and Environmental Studies (IEES) at Obafemi Awolowo University are collaborating to conduct real-time monitoring of surface water pollution through the deployment of Internet-of-Things based sensors on selected water bodies in Ile-Ife of Nigeria.

This strategic cooperation follows the successful collaboration between WACREN, ICTP, GARNET and GMet, through which IoT-based weather monitoring systems were installed in Accra to transfer weather data for weather monitoring. At deployment sites, these battery-operated sensors use the LoRAWAN protocol to collect crucial meteorological data. The gathered data transmits smoothly to a gateway device situated atop a mast tower on the Legon campus of the University of Ghana. 

This collaboration demonstrates NRENs’ critical role in gathering scientific data, as our extensive whitepaper explains (available at https://zenodo.org/records/8198864).

Under the new activity in Nigeria, the three collaborators are looking to enhance scientific understanding and technological innovation in environmental monitoring and data collection. The details of the week of workshop activities are here.

The SwWECh study team will duplicate the beneficial actions of days two and three at two more sites: one for the Eleyele River in Ibadan, Oyo state, and the other for the Ogun River in Ogun state. 

For WACREN, this strategic collaboration and the ensuing activities demonstrate our commitment to enhancing weather monitoring in Africa, thereby contributing to achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6, which aims to ensure the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.

The Workshop in Ile-Ife is a pre-event of the WACREN 2024 Conference scheduled for March 7 and 8 in Abuja, Nigeria.